Inner spring mattress



.Ban. 28, T1936. E. D. LEEMAN INNER SPRING MATTRESS Filed May 6, 1935 Patented Jan. 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE INNER SPRING .MATTBESS Edward D. Leeman. Medical, Mac.

Application May 6, 1933, No. 669,768

1 Claim. (Cl. 5-260) This invention relates to inner spring mattresses and has for its general object to provide an inner spring construction foran inner spring mattress which has novel reinforcing means at the edges serving to reinforce and strengthen the edges of the mattress.

Fig. l is a fragmentary plan view of a portion of an inner spring for a mattress embodying my invention;

10 Fig. 2 is a fragmentary sectional view of an inner spring mattress embodying my invention, the section through the inner spring structure being taken on the line 2-2, Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of one of the rein- 15 forcing elements employed for reinforcing the edge of the mattress.

In the drawing I indicates a portion of an inner spring mattress which includes as usual an inner spring structure indicated generally at 2 and 20 which is enclosed within an envelope 3 of padding material which may be cotton or curled hair or any other suitable fibrous material which is commonly used for mattresses.

The present invention relates to the inner 25 spring construction. This inner spring comprises a plurality of vertical double conical springs 4 which are preferably arranged closely together as shown.

The top and bottom coils of adjacent springs are tied together in any suitable way as by means of tie wires 5. The spring structure is also provided with upper and lower binding wires 6, i which surround the spring structure. The upper binding wire 6 is in contact with the upper turns 35 B of the marginal springs 4 and is secured to such turns while the lower binding wire I is similarly in contact with the lower turns 9 of such marginal springs.

The binding wires are tied to the top and bottom turns 8 and 9 of the marginal springs in some suitable way and as herein shown this is accomplished by means of a tie wire 10' which is wound about each binding wire and some of the turns of which, such as the turns l I, enclose also 45 the upper and lower turns of the springs 4.

In order to reinforce the edge of the spring structure 2, I have employed reinforcing elements having the construction best shown in Fig. 3. Each of these reinforcing elements is made of wire 50 which is bent to form two connected V-shaped members [2, the legs of each member being resiliently connected at the apex of the V and the ends of the legs being attached to the binding wires 6 and I.

55 In making the reinforcing member a length of wire will be bent to form the two V-shaped members I! each member having the coil M at the apex of the V and the leg ii of each member connected to the similar leg of the other member through a connection I6 which constitutes the central portion of the wire from which the reinforcing member is made. The leg H of each v-shaped element It has the laterally-extending wire end I8 which extends parallel to the portion IS, the two wire ends l8 being in alignment with each other and preferably meeting each other. The two extremities of the wire are bent inwardly as indicated at l9, said inwardly-bent ends abutting each other.

The wire which is used for this reinforcing member is resilient and the presence of the coils H at the apex' of each V-shaped member provides a resilient connection between the legs l5 and I! of each V-shaped member which permits the legs to move toward each other but which tends to separate the legs.

The portion l6 of each reinforcing member lies in contact with one of the binding wires and is secured thereto while the parallel portions l8 are in engagement with the other binding wire and are similarly secured thereto. These portions l6 and i8 of each reinforcing member may be secured to the binding wires in any approved way but I will preferably employ the tie wire Ill for this purpose, certain of the turns 20 of the tie wire encircling both the binding wire and the engaging portion H5 or l8 of the reinforcing member.

Each reinforcing member is constructed so that the length of the portion I6 is equal to the spacing of the springs and the reinforcing elements are secured to the binding wires so that the V-shaped members l2 will be situated between adjacent coils 4 as best seen in Fig. 1.

In assembling the parts one reinforcing element will be placed in position with the two V-shaped members l2 thereof embracing one of the springs 4 and the next reinforcing element will be placed in position so that its V-shaped members I2 will embrace the second spring 4 from the spring which is embraced by the first-named reinforcing element. Thus these reinforcing elements will be positioned so as to embrace the alternate marginal springs 4.

These reinforcing elements are so made that normallyv the arms l5 and l! of each V-shaped member tend to separate a distance somewhat greater than that they occupy in the mattress and as a result under normal conditions the tension or resiliency of the reinforcing elements exerts a separating force on the bindingwlres 5 and 1. When a weight is applied tothe edge of the mattressias for instance it a. person sits on the edge of a mattress, the edge springs will, 5 of course, be compressed and these reinforcing elements import into the mattress additional resistance to such weight and thus serve to prevent the edge of the inattress from collapsing unduly.

I claim: Z An inner spring structure for an inner spring mattress comprEing a group of vertical springs; a binding wire encircling the group of springs at both top and bottom and secured to the topand bottom turns of each marginal spring of 15 the group, and a plurality of reinforcing elements connecting the upper and lower binding wires at a plurality of points, each reinforcing element being made of a single length of wire bent to present two integrally-connected V-shaped por- 20 tions occupying parallel planes with the legs of each V-shaped portion of equal length and integrally but resiliently connected at the apex of the V-shape and with the opposite ends of the aoaaove corresponding legs of the two V-shaped portions integrally connected by a connecting portion extending at right angles to the legs and integral with each leg, said single length of wire being further bent to form an arm extending laterfly fromj the opposite end of the other leg of each V-shaped portion, said arms being parallel with the connecting portion and in alignment with and meeting each other, the apexes oi' the two V-shaped portions being unconnected, said connecting portion having substantially the same length as the diameter of each vertical spring, a reinforcing element being placed with its two V-shaped members embracing alternate marginal vertical springs along the side of the mattress whereby there will be a v-fsghaped portion between each two adjacent springs along said side of the mattress, means tying the connecting portion of each reinforcing element to one of the binding wires and means tying the two arms of each reinforcing element to the other binding wire. i

: EDWARD D. DEEMAN. 

